Included was the battle of Prokhorovka (viewed as the culmination of the Germans drive on Kursk from the south), which was fought on 12 July 1943. As a historian with a long interest in armoured warfare and the war on the Eastern Front during the Second World War, it was an easy choice – the monumental battles around Kursk/Orel in the summer of 1943. In the autumn of 2017 I had the opportunity to teach an operational case study at the Joint Services and Command Staff College on an historical campaign of my choosing. The article utilises previously unpublished Luftwaffe reconnaissance photographs to provide the first visual confirmation across the battlefield of the fate of the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army’s attacking components. This post coincides with the release of Ben’s article ‘ A visual examination of the battle of Prokhorovka ’ in the Journal of Intelligence History. 1, Ben Wheatley’s new research on the visual record of the Battle of Prokhorovka.īen Wheatley is a Honorary Research Fellow in the School of History, University of East Anglia and a former Teaching Fellow at the Defence Studies Department, King’s College London. To see in the New Year, Defence-in-Depth is re-publishing its three most-viewed posts of 2019.

Battle of kursk remains of tank crew